Is there a transition or sell-off period?

As things stand, the implementing act provides for no general transition or sell-off period. Packaging carrying impermissible claims should therefore be changed in good time, because prepress, approval and selling off existing stock all need lead time.

The transposition came as an amendment to the German Unfair Competition Act, promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette of 19 February 2026; the rules apply from 27 September 2026. Anyone planning print production should allow several months: artwork change, internal sign-off, new print run and sell-off of remaining stock happen one after another, not in parallel.

What applies to old stock

The rules expressly also cover packaging manufactured, ordered, distributed or placed on the shelf before the application date. In June 2026 the national authorities in the European Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) published a common understanding on this: enforcement may be phased where old stock gives rise to genuine and specific transitional difficulties, practical constraints such as packaging cycles and orders already placed are taken into account, and in justified cases compliance comes before sanctions. What is expected in return are all reasonable and proportionate efforts, evidenced by records showing what was done and when. That is not a general sell-off period, and the paper is not binding either.

And there is the planned section 15b UWG

Three days before the cut-off date, on 24 September 2026, the German Bundestag passed a new section 15b UWG as part of the Designrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz. Under it, injunctive claims concerning goods placed on the market before 27 September 2026 may only be pursued in good faith and with regard to proportionality. The factors weighed are the severity of the infringement, the adjustment measures already taken, and the cost and environmental burden of removal. The provision is limited until 27 September 2028.

What counts is placing on the market, not the date of manufacture. Online presences and websites are not covered, nor is anything placed on the market after 27 September 2026.

As at 4 October 2026: the Bundestag has approved it, but the Bundesrat and publication in the Federal Law Gazette are still outstanding. The provision is therefore not yet in force. And even then it would not be a free pass for selling off stock, but a standard for weighing up the individual case.

For a certification already under way this is still better news than the CPC paper: the adjustment measures already taken are named there explicitly as a criterion, and a procedure that has begun, with a dated enquiry and a commissioned laboratory test, is exactly that.